Alveolar and postalveolar approximants

Alveolar and postalveolar approximants
ɹ
ð̠˕
IPA Number	151
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɹ
Unicode (hex)	U+0279
X-SAMPA	r\ or D_r_o
Braille
Image

Postalveolar approximant
ɹ̠
Audio sample
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The alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the alveolar and postalveolar approximants is ⟨ɹ⟩, a lowercase letter r rotated 180 degrees. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ⟨r\⟩.

There is no separate symbol for the dental approximant (as in Spanish nada) in the International Phonetic Alphabet, which most scholars transcribe with the symbol for voiced dental fricative, ⟨ð⟩.

The most common sound represented by the letter r in English is the postalveolar approximant, pronounced a little more back and transcribed more precisely in IPA as ⟨ɹ̠⟩, but ⟨ɹ⟩ is often used for convenience in its place. For further ease of typesetting, English phonemic transcriptions might use the symbol ⟨r⟩ even though the former symbol represents the alveolar trill in phonetic transcription.

Features

Features of the alveolar approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Armenian	Eastern	սուրճ	[suɹtʃ]	'coffee'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic	Alqosh dialect	[ɹɑbɑ]		'many'	Corresponds to /ɾ/ in most other Assyrian dialects.
	Tyari dialect
Burmese		တိရစ္ဆာန်	[təɹeɪʔsʰàɴ]	'animal'	Occurs only in loanwords, mostly from Pali or English
Chukchi		ңирэк	[ŋiɹek]	'two'
Danish	Standard	ved	[ʋe̝ð̠˕ˠ]	'at, by'	Velarized and laminal; allophone of /d/ in the syllable coda. For few speakers, it may be a non-sibilant fricative instead. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Central Netherlandic	door	[doːɹ]	'through'	Allophone of /r/ in the syllable coda for some speakers. See Dutch phonology
	Western Netherlandic
	Leiden	rat	[ɹat]	'rat'	Corresponds to /r/ in other dialects.
English	most American dialects	red	<phonos file="En-us-red.ogg">[ɹ̠ʷɛd]</phonos>	'red'	Often retracted and labialized. May also be a labialized retroflex approximant. For convenience it is often transcribed ⟨r⟩. See English phonology and Rhoticity in English.
	Australian
	Received Pronunciation
Faroese		róður	[ɹɔuwʊɹ]	'rudder'
German	Siegerland	Rebe	[ˈɹeːbə]	'vine shoot'	Most other dialects use a voiced uvular fricative or uvular trill. See German phonology
	Silesian German
	Upper Lusatian
	Westerwald
Greek		μέρα méra	[ˈmɛɹɐ]	'day'	Allophone of /r/ in rapid or casual speech. See Modern Greek phonology
Icelandic		bróðir	[ˈproːð̠˕ir]	'brother'	Usually apical. See Icelandic phonology
Igbo		rí	[ɹí]	'eat'	Post-alveolar
Limburgish	Montfortian dialect	maintenant	[ˈmæ̃ːn˦ð̠˕ənɑ̃ː˨]	'now'
Persian		فارسی	[fɒːɹˈsiː]	'Persian'	Allophone of /ɾ/ before /d/, /l/, /s/, /ʃ/, /t/, /z/, and /ʒ/. See Persian phonology.
Portuguese	Inland Brazilian Centro-Sul's metro cities	amor	[aˈmoɹ]	'love', 'dear'	Allophone of [ɾ ~ ʁ] in the syllable coda. May also be retroflex, post-alveolar and/or rhotic vowel. See Portuguese phonology.
	General Brazilian	marketing	[ˈmaɹke̞tɕĩ]	'marketing'	Appears in loanwords, even by speakers who do not use it as an allophone of [ɾ ~ ʁ]. Generally not as onset or final e.g. trailer [ˈtɾejle̞ʁ].
	Greater São Paulo	permitir	[pe̞ɹmiˈtɕiɾ]	'to allow', 'to enable'
Spanish	Some dialects	doscientos	[do̞ɹˈθje̞n̪t̪o̞s]	'two hundred'	Allophone of /s/ in the syllable coda. See Spanish phonology
	Belizean	invierno	[imˈbjeɹno]	'winter'	Sometimes occurs as an allophone of [ɾ ~ r] at syllable coda.
	Puerto Rican				Sometimes occurs as an allophone of [ɾ ~ r] at syllable coda.
Swedish	Central Standard	starkast	[ˈs̪t̪äɹːkäs̪t̪]	'strongest'	Allophone of /r/. Some speakers have [ɾ] ([r] when geminated) in all positions. See Swedish phonology
Vietnamese	Saigon	ra	[ɹa]	'go out'	In free variation with [ɾ], [r] and [ʐ]. See Vietnamese phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	rdɨ	[ɹd̪ɨ]	'pass'	Allophone of /ɾ/ before any consonant

As an allophone of other rhotic sounds, [ɹ] occurs in Edo, Fula, Murinh-patha, and Palauan.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles